THE JOURNAL

OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

BUDDHIST STUDIES

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A. K. Narain
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

EDITORS
Heinz Bechert Leon Hurvitz
Universitdt Gottingen, FRG UBC, Vancouver, Canada

Lewis Lancaster Alexander W. MacDonald

University of California, Berkeley, USA Universite de Paris X, Nanterre, France

B. f. Stavisky Alex Wayman

WNIIR, Moscow, USSR Columbia University, New York, USA

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Stephan Beyer
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

Volume 4 1981 Number I

 CONTENTS

I. ARTICLES

The Concepts of Truth and Meaning in the Buddhist

Scriptures, by Jose I. Cabezon 7
Changing the Female Body: Wise Women and the Bodhi-
sattva Career in Some Maharatnakvtasutras, by Nancy
Schuster 24
liodhi and Amhattaphala. From early Buddhism to early
Mahayana, h Karel Werner 70

II. SHORT PAPERS

A Study on the Madhyamika Method of Refutation and Its

Influence on Buddhist Logic, by Shohei Ichimura 87
An Exceptional Group of Painted Buddha Figures at Ajanta,
fry Anand Krishna 96
Rune E. A. Johansson's Analysis of Citta: A Criticism, by
Arvind Sharma 101

III. BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTICES

Cross Currents in Early Buddhism, fry S. N. Dube 108

Buddha's Lions—The Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas, by
James B. Robinson 111
 Tangles and Webs, by Padmasiri de Silva 113
Buddhist and Freudian Psychology, by Padmasiri de Silva 114
Buddhist-Christian Empathy, by Joseph J. Spae 115
T h e Religions of Tibet, by Guiseppe Tucci 119

IV. NOTES AND NEWS

A Report on the 3rd Conference of the IABS 123

Buddhism and Music 127
Presidential Address at the 2nd IABS Conference at Nalanda
hyP.Prndhan 128

contributors 143
Buddha's Lions—The Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas. by James B. Robin-
son, Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1979. 404 + xv. p.

It is truly a pleasure to find that it is still possible for a good piece

of Buddhological scholarship to be tun. T h e market has from its begin-
ning allowed two unfortunate extremes in publication. One is the unin-
formed account aimed at a "lay audience" which, in the name of simplic-
ity, ends up underestimating the capacity (and often times the gullibility)
of the general reader. The other, under the guise of being "a study for
the specialist," ends up confounding both specialist and lay reader alike
with unnecessary complexities. Instead of indicating their author's ex-
pertise, they usually betray his lack of it. Professor Robinson's study, a
transition of the Cataura'sJti Siddha Pmvrtti of Abhayadatta (from the
Tibetan translation) manages most skillfully to avoid both of these
pitfalls.
In his introduction, Dr. Robinson discusses some of the general
issues relevant to a study of the siddhas. He treats such issues as the
meaning of the term siddha and points out the similarities between one
hagiography and the next, seeing a definite pattern to the way these
accounts are structured. I would take exception, however, with his
analysis of the origins of the vajrayana, not tecause it is wrong but
because it is speculative. He says:
For just as the Mahayana emerged to balance the scholasticism of the
Hinayana, so the tradition of the Vajrayana came to the fore to balance
the scholasticism of the Mahayana (P. 5).
Granted that the scholasticism of the Mahayana may have been
one factor in the emergence of the Vajrayana; but how can we be sure?
Moreover, the implication that it was the sole or even the principal
impetus for the rise of the Vajrayana is altogether too simplistic to
account for the sometimes radically different nature of the two systems.
T o conceive of the Vajrayana as the practice-oriented side of the Maha-
yana, as Professor Robinson seems to, is in my view misguided. Not to be
misunderstood, however, my main objection here is not that speculation
concerning such very interesting issues be omitted, but that it either be
substantiated (textually, art-historically, etc.)—in which case it ceases to
be speculation—or simply be identified as speculative.
A very interesting philosophical issue that is just mentioned in
passing by Dr. Robinson is perhaps worthy of mention here. He states
that "the key factor is not whether one conforms or does not conform to
a particular set of social norms; rather it is the state of mind with which
one acts." This, though quite true from the point of view of Tantric
Buddhism, can (and often is) misunderstood. It does not give the would-
be siddha the right to cease moral-observance, nor does it make mere
111
non-conformity the path to liberation; and yet, Atisa does make it quite
clear that the yogin who has "seen reality" (de nyid mthong) incurs no
moral faults (nyes pa med).
As regards the translation, it is unquestionably of a very high
calibre, its greatest advantage being that the author has managed to
evade the pitfalls of translating Tibetan into Tibglish, that linguistic no-
man's-land fraught with curiously Tibetan syntactic structures lurking
in a veritable jungle of English words. Dr. Robinson's translations reads
like English, while at the same time being quite true to the originals. It is
a monument to the fact that "literal" translations can be more than just
cribs.
Still, I find that I must point out a few places in the text that could
stand improvement. First let us consider the homage. The Tibetan text
reads:
bla ma dam pa mams la phyag tshal to i dus gsum tangs rgyas mains dang brgnd
pu'i bla ma mkha spyodgshegs pti mams j dngos kyi bla ma mchoggyi dngos givb
bniyrs pa mi 'jigs pa dpal la I I us ngag \id gsuni dad pas zhabs kyi pad mo dag la
gits bttid nas , lu \i pa sags grab thob brgyad tu rtsa bzhi yang dag lo rgyas bri: (p.
112)

Dr. Robinson translates as follows:

Herein is written the true account of the eighty-tour siddhas, Luyipa
and the others: eighty men who gained clear understanding and obtained
siddhi, and four women who achieved clear understanding and won
liberation. This assembly of eighty-four is indeed most welcome. (The
yoginis Manibhadra, Mekhala, kanakhala, and Laksmfkala were objects of
devotion for five generations of King Kungi's dependents.)
I would suggest the following translation:
Homage to the sacred gurus. Filled with faith, my body, speech and mind
play homage to the lotus feet of the Buddhas of the three times, to the
lineage gurus who have gone to the celestial realm, and to my glorious
and fearless actual gurus who lead one to the highest siddi. Having done
so, I will write the true account of the eighty-four siddhas, Luyipa and the
rest.
It seems that while omitting the main body of the homage, the translator
chooses to add a few lines concerning women which are totally absent in
the text. Granted that the Vajarayana is a step forward for women's
spiritual rights; but statistically speaking, four out of eighty-four is not
exactly a record of which to boast. Dr. Robinson's remarks both in the
introduction (p. 15) and in the corpus of his translation imply a stress on
the status of women that is missing in the actual text.
One other point that deserves mentioning and which seems to be
the cause of repeated confusion concerns the distinctions between the
\\2
different kinds of effects. From Dr. Robinson's translation (pp. 39 and
91) one gets the impression that we are not dealing with technical
matters at all (and under other sets of circumstances this would be a
virtue), but the fact is that the terms mam par smin pa'i bras bu, byed pa
rgyu mthun gyi 'bras bu, dband gi 'bras bu, skyed ba byed pa'i 'bras bu, and
smyong ba rgyu mthun gyi 'bras bu have very specific meanings in a
discussion of karma. T o go into the details of these distinctions here
would be beyond the scope of this evaluation. Suffice it therefore to
refer the reader to a very adequate discussion of these very concepts in
Geshe L. Sopa's Lectures on Tibetan Religious Culture.
I hope that by my bringing up these points the reader has not lost
the forest for the trees. Despite minor discrepancies in the translations,
the work is as a whole of superior quality. It should be a work that a
general audience will find enjoyable reading. The inclusion of the
Tibetan text and informative appendices will enhance its value to the
specialist as well. All in all, James Robinson's Buddha's Lions will be a
work that will find a wide range of appeal for many years to come.

Jose Cabezon

Tangles and Webs, by Padmasiri de Silva. Second edition. Foreword by

Ninian Smart. Colombo: Lake House Investments LTD, 1976. 75 pp.

This rather slim tome has a more than ambitious task, namely, to
offer a comparative analysis of Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and Bud-
dhism. One has to add here that de Silva means Theravdda Buddhism
and all technical terms are given in the Pali form. There are only six
chapters: Existence, Pleasure, Tragedy, Anxiety, Alienation and Ther-
apy; all but the last are key concepts in understanding Existentialism.
T h e title Tangles and Webs comes from the Antojatd Bahijatd and de Silva
says: "In the vast jungle of knots, tangles and webs, each man should
clear up his own little mess" (p. 69). This notion is reinforced by a recent
book in psychology: Knots by R. D. Laing, with which de Silva is familiar.
Indeed, the erudite de Silva is familiar with many schools of
thought. In my opinion, he is most suited lor writing this study, which
has been influenced by his reading acquaintance of I.udwig Binswanger,
a friend of Freud and the founder of the psychiatric school called
"Existential Analysis." De Silva has already written a book on Freud,
entitled Buddhist and Freudian f'wltology. and a review of this book will be
published presently in this same journal.
T h e main thesis of Tangles and Webs can be put succinctly: "The
113